Audit: workers took $10K in equipment from ULL lab

Auditors say employees at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's primate lab in New Iberia stole more than $10,000 worth of batteries, scrap metal and other material and sold it to a scrap yard over two years.

The legislative audit released Monday also found that managers at the New Iberia Research Center waited two weeks to tell police that a cellphone was missing. During those weeks, the phone was used for $16,000 in calls.

The audit also found that $12,000 worth of thefts from the university in Lafayette weren't reported for up to a year. It says items reported stolen at the end of May had been taken between April and December of last year.

University officials say in their response that they are taking steps to change problems.